“Inspired by the folk historian Cecil Sharp, who toured the British countryside by bicycle in the early 1900s, and Alan Lomax, who recorded country, blues and folk musicians in America during the 1930s and 1940s, [Ashu Sharma and Ankur Malhotra] dream is to create an archive of recordings not just from Rajasthan and Gujarat, but from across the country.”
Author: ArtsJournal2
Funding Initiative For New York Indie Theatres Gets Off The Ground
“Economic hardship has forced many independent theater groups and artists to shut down or move out of New York City in recent years. The experimental artistic spaces left standing, which have long served as a home and training ground for some of the biggest actors, writers, and directors in Hollywood and on Broadway, face a continuing challenge to make ends meet.” A new fund hopes to address that.
A Young Conductor Who Loves Very Old Music
For Pablo Heras-Casado, principal conductor of the Orchestra of St. Luke’s, “early music represents the core of the repertory, with contemporary music a close second. Trained as a conductor of Renaissance choral music and soon steeped in the cerebral avant-garde, Mr. Heras-Casado, who is 34 and Spanish, arrived at Beethoven and Brahms only in recent years.”
Turning London’s Southbank Centre Into A Shopping Mall? Bad Planning
“The Southbank Centre should not be like everywhere else. It should be a place apart, where you can breathe a different kind of air and see the city in a different way. Its raised walkways give you a new perspective on the river, and its rugged 1960s architecture, like a craggy rock formation, creates a different sense of time to central London’s frenetic streets. These concrete structures have been much criticised but even though they have been minimally cared-for over several decades they still have nobility and – something increasingly precious because it is getting rarer – the provision of space and surface that is open, free, unprogrammed, unconsumed by branding and marketing.”
Chicago Artist Wants To Transform Abandoned Bank Into Vibrant Arts Center
“I’ve always felt like it’s important that artists be good citizens,” Gates said. “Citizenship for me includes thinking hard about the cultural life of the place that I live in. No matter what my resources have been, I’ve always tried to make culture happen.”
Architecture Mecca: Columbus, Indiana … Of Course
“More than 60 public buildings in Columbus have been built by a veritable who’s who of modern masters — I.M. Pei, Eero and Eliel Saarinen, Cesar Pelli, Richard Meier, Harry Weese, Robert Venturi and James Polshek, to name a few.”
What’s Better Than Still Photos And Video? The Animated GIF!
Animated GIFs have made this year’s Olympics much more fun. (Will they enliven arts reporting next?)
We Might Have A Spotify For Audiobooks – And An Alternative To Amazon – At Long Last
“It works like this: users pay £9.99 a month for unlimited access to Bardowl’s library of audiobooks, which they stream via their iPhone or iPad. And, yes, you can listen offline.”
Suburbs: Ugly, Environmentally Problematic – And Home Of Funders For Arts In The City
“As Chicago ponders its evolving cultural plan, it’s worth remembering that its influence does not stop at Howard Street or Austin Avenue or at Jack’s Lounge down on South Halsted Street. Some soothing rhetoric is sorely needed about the crucial unity of Chicagoland, it being impossible for Chicago to thrive without the ‘land,’ especially in the cultural sector.”
How A Grammy (Even One That Beats Justin Bieber) Only Sort Of Helps Esperanza Spaulding’s Jazz Career
“Everything I do is pretty much the same as it was; we tour like we used to. But the venues are bigger. There’s more access to publicity, so the promoters know there’s a better chance of selling more tickets. The good thing has been that because we can play bigger venues, I can bring a bigger band.” But Spaulding still can’t get her songs on the radio.